Sixth annual Young Alumni Essay Contest results

Published: Winter 2018-19

Through the personal professional upheavals of postgraduate life, a surprising constant — listening to a 19th-century composer at the beach — keeps life steady. That's the premise of "Mendelssohn on the beach" by Edward Jacobson '13, which won first place in this magazine's sixth annual Young Alumni Essay Contest.

Editors spent a day reading the entries in the 2018 contest and selected the winners after follow-up readings and discussions. The names of the authors were not attached to the essays and were not revealed until after the winning entries were chosen.

Jacobson's first-place essay and two second-place essays written by Gretel Kauffman and Rachel Plassmeyer Bené appear in this issue’s CrossCurrents section. The five honorable-mention essays were published at magazine.nd.edu in early 2019.